No. He may still not succeed. However what he did is NECESSARY for a coach to be successful at UT or other programs trying to reinsert themselves in the top tier. If "progress" is too slow then you don't have the recruiting credibility needed to push over the hump. If he had won 7 or even 8 games last year then opposing recruiters could have rightly questioned if he were just another in a long line of failed UT coaching hires.
Historically across college football, coaches that fail to win 10 games in their first 3 years almost never go on to win championships or have significant success at that school. You need players to turn a program around and you have to make a "splash" with recruits if you are at a program that's been down.
There will be questions if he has a couple of 4 loss seasons... and there should be. That's particularly true since it appears that UT's schedule will not include UGA every year after this year. The end of divisional play will actually level the field somewhat for UT considering no one else has the disadvantage of playing both Bama and UGA right now. But 11 wins bought him the credibility to have a chance. Eight wins or less likely would have been the beginning of the end.
